State v. Naylor’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The first error assigned in the appellant’s brief was the admission by the court of evidence tending to show that the conduct of defendant and Miss Traver was the subject of comment and criticism in the community. The learned district attorney has cited to us no case, and we have been unable.to find one, which holds evidence of this character to be admissible. It is plausibly argued that, as the gist of the offense is its tendency to cause scandal and corrupt public morals, the fact that scandal was caused may be proved as a substantive fact in the case. This would be a dangerous doctrine to ingraft upon the law. The question is not whether defendant’s conduct was commented upon by a few, or even many, people, but was it such as in the mind of a reasonable man would tend to cause scandal and tend to induce the belief in the minds of reasonable people that the relations between the parties were meretricious? Any other rule would substitute hearsay and the opinion of some members of the community for that testimony as to the facts which the law always requires. The authorities support this view: 2 McClain, Crim. Law, § 1135; Belcher v. State, 27 Tenn. (8 Humph.) 63; Buttram v. State, 44 Tenn. (4 Cold.) 171 . The admission of this testimony was error.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Naylor